Objectives: Information on normative reference values for cardiac structures is critical for the accurate application of echocardiography for guiding clinical decision-making. Many studies using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) have shown that Indians have smaller diameters of various cardiac structures. There are no normative studies for transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). The authors observed dimensions of various cardiac structures in healthy Indian patients under general anesthesia using TEE and compared them with existing guidelines from non-Indian data.
Design: The Indian Normative TEE Measurements study was a multicenter, prospective observational study conducted in India.
Setting: Operating rooms for noncardiac surgeries in tertiary care-level hospitals.
Participants: Adult patients undergoing noncardiac surgery who were free from any cardiac, respiratory, and renal diseases and had no contraindications for TEE.
Interventions: After inducing general anesthesia and achieving stable hemodynamic conditions, a comprehensive TEE examination was performed and various measurements were made.
Measurements and main results: For each of the 83 patients undergoing noncardiac surgery, 39 various measurements for left ventricle, right ventricle, both atria, and all valves were made. This included diameters and functional parameters. They were analyzed in a vendor-neutral software off-line. The absolute values of many of the measurements were higher in men, but when indexed to body surface area (BSA) they were similar in both sexes. The values were lower than most of the Western data but matched previous Indian studies using TTE.
Conclusions: The authors present normative values of various echocardiographic parameters using TEE. Because of its variations, it is recommended to use India-specific data to make decisions in Indian patients. It may be prudent to use BSA-indexed values during decision-making.
Keywords: INTEEM; Indian; Normal Values; TEE.
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